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THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 

In the United States Senate, February 29, 1S60. 



Mr. President, the admission of Kansas into 
tie Union, without further delay, seems to me 
equally necessary, just, and wise. In recorded 
dehates, I have already anticipated the argu- 
ments for this conclusion. 

In coming forward among the political astrol- 
ogers, it shall be an error of judgment, and not 
of disposition, if my interpretation of the fever- 
ish dreams which are disturbing the country 
shall tend to foment, rather than to allay, the 
national excitement. I shall say nothing unne- 
cessarily of persons, because, in our system, Phe 
public welfare and happiness depend chiefly on 
institutions, and very little on men. I shall 
allude but briefly to incidental topics, because 
they are ephemeral, and because, even in the 
midst of appeals to passion and prejudice, it is 
always safe to submit solid truth to the delib- 
erate consideration of an honest and enlightened 
people. 

It will be an overflowing source of shame, as 
well as of sorrow, if we, thirty millions — Euro- 
peans by extraction, Americans by birth or dis- 
cipline, and Christians in faith, and meaning to 
be such in practice — caunot so combine prudence 
with humanity, in our conduct concerning the 
one disturbing subject of Blavery, as not only to 
preserve our unequalled institutions of freedom, 
bat also to enjoy their benefits with contentment 
and harmony. 

Wherever a guiltless slave exists, be he Cau- 
casian, American, Malay, or African, he is the 
subject of two distinct and opposite ideas — .one 
that he is wrongly, the other that he is rightly, 
a slave. The balance of numbers on either side, 
however great, never completely extinguishes 
this difference of opinion, for there are always 
some defenders of slavery outside, even if there 
are none inside, of a free State, while also there 
are always outside, if there are not inside, of 
every slave State, many who assert, with Milton, 
that ''no man who knows aught can be so stu- 
pid to deny that all men naturally were born 
free, being the image and resemblance of God 
himself, and were by privilege above all the 
creatures, born to command, and not to obey." 
It ofien, perhaps generally, happens, however, 
that in considering the subject of slavery, society 
seems to overlook the natural right or personal 
interest of the slave himself, and to act exclu- 
sively for the welfare of the citizen. But this 
fact does not materially affect ultimate results, 
for the elementary question of the rightfulness 
or wrongfulness of slavery inheres in every form 
that discussion concerning it assumes. What is 
just to one class of me~ can never be injurious 
to any other; and what is unjust to any condi- 
tion of persons in a State, is necessarily injuri- 
ous, in some degree, to the whole community. 
An economical question early arises out of the 
subject of slavery — labor, either of freemen or of 
slaves, is the cardinal necessity of society. Some 
States choose the one kind, some the other. 
Hence two municipal systems, widely different, 
arise. The slave State strikes down and affects 



to extinguish the personality of the laborer, not 
only a3 a member of the political body, but also 
as a parent, husband, child, neighbor, or friend. 
He thus becomes, in a political view, merely 
property, without moral capacity, and without 
domestic, moral, and social relations, duties, 
rights, and remedies — a chattel, an object of 
bargain, sale, gift, inheritance, or theft. His 
earnings are compeusated and his wrongs 
atoned, not to himself, but to his owner. The 
Stale protects not the slave as a man, but the 
capital of another man, which he represents. 
On the other hand, the State which rejects sla- 
very encourages and animates and invigorates 
the laborer by maintaining and developing his 
natural personality in all the rights and facul- 
ties of manhood, and generally with the privi- 
leges of citizenship. In the one case, capital 
invested in slaves becomes a great political 
force ; while in the other, labor, thus elevated 
and enfranchised, becomes the dominating polit- 
ical power. It thus happens that we may, for 
convenience sa^e, and not inaccurately, call 
slave States capital States, and free States labor 
States. 

So soon as a State feels the impulses of com- 
merce, or enterprise, or ambition, its citizens 
begin to study the effects of these systems of 
capital and labor respectively on its intelligence, 
its virtue, its tranquillity, its integrity or unity, 
its defence, its prosperity, its liberty, its happi- 
ness, its aggrandizement, and its fame. In other 
words, the great question arises, whether slavery 
is a moral, social, and political good, or a moral, 
social, and political evil. This is the slavery 
question at home. But there is a mutual bond 
of amity and brotherhood between man and man 
throughout the world. Nations examine freely 
the political systems of each other, and of all 
preceding times, and accordingly as they ap- 
prove or disapprove of the two systems of capi- 
tal and labor respectively, they sanction and 
prosecute, or condemn and prohibit, commerce 
in men. Thus, in one way or in another, the 
slavery question, which so many among us, who 
are more willing to rule than patient in study- 
ing the conditions of society, think is a merely 
accidental or unnecessary question, that might 
and ought to be settled and dismissed at once, 
is, on the contrary, a world-wide and enduring 
subject of political consideration and civil ad- 
ministration. Men, states, and nations, enter- 
tain it, not voluntarily, but because the progress 
of society continually brings it into their way. 
They divide upon it, not perversely, but because, 
owing to differences of constitution, condition, 
or circumstances, they cannot agree. 

The fathers of the Republic encountered it. 
They even adjusted it so that it might have 
given us much less than our present disquiet, 
had not circumstances afterwards occurred 
which they, wise as they were, had not clearly 
foreseen. Although they had inherited, yet they 
generally condemned, the practice of slavery, and 
hoped for its discontinuance. They expressed 



\ 



thi3 when they asserted in the Declaration of 
ladepjndence, as a fundamental principle of 
American society, that all men are created equal, 
and have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. Each State, however, 
reserved to itself exclusive political power over 
the subject of slavery within its own borders. 
Nevertheless, it unavoidably presented itself in 
their consultations on a bond of Federal Union. 



tion of slavery consequent on the increased con- 
sumption of cotton, and the extension of the 
national domain across the Mississippi, and these 
occurred before 1820. The State of Louisiana 
formed on a slaveholding French settlement, 
within the newly-acquired Louisianian Territory, 
had then already been admitted into the Union. 
There yet remained, however, a vast region which 
included Arkansas and Missouri, together with 



The new Government was to be a representative j the then unoccupied and e,ven unnamed Kansas 
one. Slaves were capital in some States, in and Nebraska. Arkansas, a slaveholding corn- 



others capital had no investments in labor. 
Should those t .aves be represented as capital or 
as persons, taxed as capital or as persons. 
or should they noi ^e represented or taxed 
at all? The fathers disagreed, debated long, 
and compromised at last. \>ch State, they 
^determined, shall have two Senators in Con- 
gress. Three-fifths of the slaves shall be else- 
where represented and be taxed as persons. 
What should be done if the slave should escape 
into a labor State ? Should that State confess 



munity, was nearly ready to apply, and Missouri, 
another such Territory, was actually applying 
for admission into the Federal Union. The ex- 
isting capital States seconded these applications, 
and claimed that the whole Louisianian Terri- 
tory was rightfully o r Ln to slavery, and to the 
organization of future slave States. The labor 
States maintained that Congress had supreme 
legislative power within the domain, and could 
aud ought to exclude slavery there. The ques- 
tion thus opened was one which related not at all 



him to be a chattel, and restore him as such, or j to slavery in the existing capital States. It was 



might it regard him as a person, and harbor and 
protect him as a man ? They compromised 
again, and decided that no person held to labor 
or service in one State by the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, by any law or regu- 



purely and simply a national question, whether 
the common interest of the whole Republic re- 
quired that Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Ne- 
braska, should become capital States, with all the 
evils and dangers of slavery, or be labor States, 



lation of that State,, be discharged from such ; with all the security, benefits, and blessings, of 



labor or service, but shall be delivered up.on claim 
to the person to whom sach labor or service 
shall be due. 

Free laborers would immigrate, and slaves 
might be imported into the States. The fathers 
agreed that Congress may establish uniform laws 
Of naturalization, and it might prohibit the im- 
portation of persons after 1808. Communities 
in the Southwest, detached from the Southern 
States, were growing up in the practice of 
slavery, to be capital States. New States would 
soon grow up in the Northwest, while as )-et 
capital stood aloof, and labor had not lifted the 
axe to begin there its endless but beneficent task. 
The fathers authorized Congress to make all 
needful rules and regulations concerning the 
management and disposition of the public lands, 
and to admit new States. So the Constitution, 
while it does not disturb or affect the system of 
capital in slaves, existing in any State under its 
own laws, does, at the same time, recognise 
every human being, when within any exclusive 
sphere of Federal jurisdiction, not as capital, but 
as a person. 

What was the action of the fathers in Con- 
giess? They admitted the new States of the 
Southwest as capital States, because it was prac- 



ordinance of 1787, confirmed in 1789, they pro- 



freedom. On the decision was suspended the 
question, as was thought, whether ultimately the 
interior of this new continent should be an asy- 
lum for the oppressed and the exile, coming year 
after year and age after age, voluntarily from every 
other civilized land, as well as for the children of 
misfortune in our own, or whether, through the 
renewal of the African slave trade, those magnifi- 
cent and luxuriant regions should be surrendered 
to the control of capital, wringing out the fruits of 
the earth through the impoverishing toil of n^gro 
slaves. That question of 1820 was identically the 
question of 1860, so far as principle, and even the 
field of its application, wa3 concerned. Every ele- 
ment of the controversy now present entered it 
then ; the rightfulness or the wrongfulness of sla- 
very ; its effects, present and future ; the constitu- 
tional authority of Congress; the claims of the 
States, and of their citizens ; the nature of the 
Federal Union, whether it is a compact between 
the States, or an independent Government ; the 
springs of its powers, aud the ligatures upon their 
exercise. All these were discussed with zeal and 
ability which have never been surpassed. His- 
tory tells ns, I know not how truly, that the Union 
reeled under the vehemence of that great debate. 
Patriotism took counsel from prudence, and en- 



tically impossible to do otherwise, and by the forced a settlement which lias proved to be not a 



final one ; and which, as is now seen, practically 



vided for the organization and admission of only j left open all the great political issues which were 
labor States in the Northwest. They directed j involved. Missouri and Arkansas were admitted 



fugitives from service to be restored, not as chat- 
tels, but as persons. They awarded naturaliza- 



as capital States, while labor obtained, as a res- 
ervation, the abridged but yet comprehensive 



tion to immigrant free laborers, and they prohib- i field of Kansas and Nebraska, 
ited the trade in African labor. This disposition j Now, when the present conditions of the vari- 
of the whole subject was in harmony with the ous parts of the Louisianian Territory are ob- 
condition of society, and in the main with the j served, and we see that capital retains undisputed 



spirit of the age. The seven Northern States 
contentedly became labor States by their own 
acts. The six Southern States, with equal tran- 
quillity and by their own determination, remain- 
ed capital States. 

The circumstances which the fathers did not 



possession of what it then obtained, while labor 
is convulsing the country with so hard and so 
prolonged a struggle to regain the lost equiva- 
lent which was then guarantied to it under cir- 
cumstances of so great solemnity, we may well 
desire not to be undeceived if the Missouri com- 



clearly foresee were two, namely : the reinvigora- 1 promise was indeed unnecessarily accepted by 



I'm |ee States, influenced b| x3gge.rat.ions of 
tin.- .angers of disunion. T£-e Missouri debate dis- 
closed truths of great moment for ulterior use: 
First. That it is easy to combin?:the capital 
H States in defence.^' even external interests, while 
N it is hard to unite £e labor States in a common 
polic& 

S( sond. That the labor f^'ates have a natural 
loyalty to the Union, whill the cajjjtal States 
e a natural facility for alarming tat loyalty 
by threatening disuni 

Third. What the capital States do not practi- 
cally distinguish between legitimate and consti- 
tutionafresistance to the extension of : Livery in 
the common Territories of the Union, and uncon 



fused. The Missouri debate of 1820 recurred 
now, under circumstances of heat and excite- 
ment, in relation to these conquests. The de- 
fenders of labor took alarm lest the number of 
new capital States might become so great as to 
enable that class of States to dictate the whole 
policy of the Government; and in case of con- 
stitutional resistance, then to form a new slave- 
holding confederacy arouvd the Gulf of Mexico. 
By this time the capital States seemed to hare 
become fixed in a determination that the Federal 
Government, and even ibo ■ ibor States, should 
recognise their si sv< el . ough outside of 
slave States and w.' bin the Territories of the 
United States, as property of which the master 
stitutional aggression against slavery established I could not. be in any way or by any authority 
by local laws in the capital States.- j divested; and the labor States, having become 

The early political parties were organized 



without reference to slavery. But since 1820, 
European questions have left us practically un- 
concerned. There has been a great increase of 
invention, mining, manufacture, and cultivation. 
Steam on land and on water has quickened com- 
merce. The press and the telegraph have at- 
tained prodigious activity, and the social inter- 
course between the States and their citizens has 
been immeasurably increased ; and consequently, 
their mutual relations affecting slavery have 
been, for many years, subjects of earnest and of- 
ten excited discussion. It is in my way ouly to 
show how such disputes have operated on the 
course of political events — not to reopen them 
for argument here. There was a slave ins r- 
rection in Virginia. Virginia .and Kentucky de- 
bated, and to t' e great ?•. row of the free States, 
rejected the System of voluntary labor. The 
Doltoj-zatiog Society was established with much 
\' : > " in the capital States. EmM nation soci- 

3 arose in the free States. South Uaroli.. 
nstituted proceedings to nullify obnoxious Fed- 
eral reve^Le laws. The capital SUttejMfc'mplain- 
;d of c«tnRs 1 *Mid Legislatures in th ;... States 
or interpreting the consttfjftional provision fi 
;he surrender of fugitives i/om service so as to 
:.reat them as paeons, and not property 



now more essentially Democratic than ever be- 
fore, by reason of the great development of free 
labor, more firmly ( >,aii ever insisted on the con- 
stitutional doctrine" that slaves voluntarily car- 
ried by their masters into the common Territo- 
i.ies, or into labor States, are persons, men. 

Under the auspicious influences of a Whig 
success, California and New Mexico appeared 
before Congress as labor States. The capital 
States refused to consei .', to their .Amission into 
the Union ; and again threats of disunion car- 
ried terror and consternation throughout the 
land. Another compromise was made. Specific 
enactments adtni. "'■,* California as a labor State, 
and remanded New Mexico and Utah to remain 
Territories, with the right to choose freedom OS 
slavery when ripened into States, while they 
gave new remedies for the recaption of fugitives 
froff service, and abolished the open slave mar- 
ket in the District of Columbia. These' new en- 
actments, collated with the existing statutes, 
namely, the ordinance of 1787', the Missouri pro- 
hibitory law of 1820, and the articles of Texas 
annexation, disposed by law of the subject of 
slavery in all the Territories of the United States. 
And so the compromise of 1850 was pronounced 
a full, final, absolute, and comprehensive settle- 
ment of all existing and all possible disputes 



;li«y discriminated against colored persons of I ooncer '. g slavery under the Federal authority. 

. i -' i _ i o. .1 _ _ r . l . l • . 1 ' TO . „ +~ ..-. ~~ r ,,-. + ...,«. :,^ £^/.*.A-i1 frw +hck TTnirtr* 



:he labor States, when they came to the capital 
States. They deniecjpn Congress, the right of ! 
petition, fifd embarrassed nr denied ftjpdom of 
iebate on the subject of slavery. Tres't's, which 
undertook the 'defence of the'labor system in the 
capital States, were suppressed by violence: and 
even in the labor States, public assemblies 
vened to consider slavery quessp^ns, were dis- 
persed by mobs sympathizing with the capital 
States. «. 

The Whig party, being generally an opposition 
party, practiced some forbearance toward the 
interest' of labor. The- Democratic party, not 
without demonstrations of dissent, was generally 
found sustainiu#the policy of capital. A dispo- 
sition towards The removal of slavery from the 
presence of the national Capitol appeared in the 
District of Columbia. Mr. Van Buren, a Demo- 
cratic President, launched a prospective veto 
against the anticipated measure. A Democratic 
Congress brought Texas into the Union, stipula- 
ting practically for its future reorganization in 
four slave States. Mexico was incensed. War 
ensued. The labor States asked that the Mexi- 
can law of liberty, which covered the Territories 
biought in by the treaty of peace, might remain 
and be confirmed. The Democratic party re- 



The two great parties, fearful for the Union, 
struck hands in making and in presenting this 
as an adjustment, never afterwards to be open- 
e 7 disturbed, or even questioned, and the people 
accepted it by majorities unknown before. The 
new President, chosen over an illustrious rival, 
unequivocally on the ground of greater ability, 
even if nstb more reliable purpose, to maintain 
the new treaty inviolate, made haste to justify this 
expectation when Congress assembled. He said: 
'• When the grave shall have closed over all who are now 
endeavoring to meet the obligations of duty, the year 1S50 
will be recurred to as a period filled with 'anxiety and ap- 
prehension. A successful war has just terminated ; peaco 
brought with it a great augmentation of territory. Disturb- 
ing questions arose, bearing upon the domestic institutions 
of a portion of the Confederacy, and involving the constitu- 
tional rights of the States. But, notwithstanding diftfei i 
of opinion and sentiment, in relation to details and specific 
provisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whosa 
devotion to the Union can never be doubted, has given re- 
newed vigor to our institutions, and restored a sense of so- 
Curity and repose to the public mind throughout the Confed- 
eracy. That this repose is to sutler no shock during my 
official term, if I have the power to avert it, those who 
placed me here may be assured." 

Hardly, however, had these inspiring sounds 
died awaj', throughout a reassured and delight- 
ed land, before the national repose was shocked 
again ; shocked, indeed, as it had never before 
been, and smitten this time by a blow from the 



very hand that had just released the chords of I gles, which have taxed all her virtue, wisdom, 
the national harp from their utterance of that I moderation, energies, and resources, and often 
■exalted symphony of peace. even her physical strength and martial courage, 

r- to save herself from being betrayed into the 



Kansas and Nebraska, the long-devoted reser- 
vation of labor and freedom, saved in the agony 
of national fear in 1820, and saved again in the 
panic of 1859, were now to be opened by Con- 
gress, that the never-ending course of seed-time 
and harvest might begin. The slave capitalists 
of Missouri, from their own well-assured homes 
on the eastern banks of their noble river, looked 
down upon and coveted the fertile prairies of 
Kansas ; while a sudden terror ran through all 
the capital States, when they saw a seeming 
certainty that at last a new labor State would 
be built on their western border, inevitably 
fraught, as they said, with a near or remote ab- 
olition of slavery. What could be done ? Con- 
gress could hardly be expected to intervene di- 
rectly for their safety so soon after the compro- 
mise of 1850. The labor hive of the free States 
was distant, the way new, unknown, and not 
without perils. Missouri was near and watchful, 
and held the keys of the gates of Kansas. She 
might seize the new and smiling Territory by 
surprise, if only Congress would remove the bar- 
rier established in 1820. The conjuncture was 
favorable. Clay and Webster, the distinguished 
citizens whose unquestionable devotion to the 
Union was manifested by their acquiescence in 
the compromise of 1850, had gone down already 
into their honored graves. The labor States had 
dismissed many of their representatives here for 
too great fidelity to freedom, and too great dis- 
trust of the efficacy of that new bond of peace, 
and had replaced them with partisans who were 
only timid, but not unwilling. The Democratic 
President and Congress hesitated, but not long. 
They revised the last great compromise, and 
found, with delighted surprise, that it was so far 
from confirming the law of freedom of 1820, that, 
on the other hand, it exactly provided for the 
abrogation of that venerated statute ; nay, that 
the compromise itself actually killed the spirit of 
the Missouri law, and devolved on Congress the 
duty of removing the lifeless letter from the na- 
tional code. The deed was done. The new 
enactment not only repealed the Missouri pro- 
hibition of slavery, but it pronounced the people 
of Kansas and Nebraska perfectly free to estab- 
lish freedom or slavery, and pledged Congress to 
admit them in due time as States, either of cap- 
ital or of labor, into the Union. The Whig rep- 
resentatives of the capital States, in an hour of 
strange bewilderment, concurred ; and the Whig 
party instantly went down, never to rise again. 
Democrats seceded, and stood aloof; the country 
was confounded ; and, amid the perplexities of 
the hour, a Republican party was seen gathering 
itself together with much earnestness, but with 
little show of organization, to rescue, if it were 
not now too late, the cause of freedom and labor, 
so unexpectedly and grievously imperilled in the 
Territories of the United States. 

I will not linger over the sequel. The popular 
sovereignty of Kansas proved to be the State 
sovereignty of Missouri, not only in the persons 
Of the rulers, but even in the letter of an arbi- 
trary and cruel code. The perfect freedom 
proved to be a hateful and intolerable bondage. 
From 1855 to 1860, Kansas, sustained and en- 
couraged only by the Republican party, has been 
engaged in successive and ever-varying strug- 



rayed 

Union as a slave State. Nebraska, though 
choosing freedom, is, through the direct exercise 
of the Executive power, overriding her own will, 
held as a slave Territory; and New Mexico has 
relapsed voluntarily into the practice of slavery, 
from whicb she had redeemed herself while she 
yet remained a part of the Mexican Republic. 
Meantime, the Democratic party, advancing from 
the ground of popular sovereignty as far as that 
ground is from the ordinance of 1*787, now 
stands on the position that both Territorial 
Governments and Congress are incompetent to 
legislate against slavery in the Territories, while 
they are not only competent, but are obliged, 
when it is necessury, to legislate for its protec- 
tion there. 

In this new and extreme position the Demo- 
cratic party now masks itself behind the battery 
of the Supreme Court, as if it were possibly a 
true construction of the Constitution, that the 
power of deciding practically forever between 
freedom and slavery in a portion of the continent 
far exceeding all that is yet organized, should be 
renounced by Congress, which alone possesses 
any legislative authority, and should be assumed 
and exercised by a court which can only take 
cognizance of the great question collaterally, in 
a private action between individuals, and which 
action the Constitution will not suffer the court 
to entertain, if it involves twenty dollars of 
money, without the overruling intervention of a 
jury of twelve good and lawful men of the 
neighborhood where the litigation arises. The 
independent, ever-renewed, and ever-recus^ing 
representative Parliament, Diet, Congress, or 
Legislature, is the one chief, paramount, essen- 
tial, indispensable institution in afclepublic 
Even liberty, guarantied by organic la'w, yet if 
it be held by other tenure than the guardian 
"c"are of such a representative popular assembly, 
is but precariously maintained, while slavery, 
enforced by an irresponsible judicial tribunal, is 
the completed possible development of despotism. 
Mr. President, did ever the annals of any Gov- 
ernment show a more rapid or more complete 
departure from the wisdom and virtue of its 
founders ? Did ever the Government of a great 
empire, founded on the rights of human labor, 
slide away so fast and so far, and moor itself so 
tenaciously on the basis of capital, and that 
capital invested in laboring men ? Did ever a 
free representative Legislature, invested with 
powers so great, and with the guardianship of 
rights so important, of trusts so sacred, of in- 
terests so precious, and of hopes at once so no- 
ble and so comprehensive, surrender and re- 
nounce them all so unnecessarily, so unwisely, 
so fatally, and so ingloriously? If it be true, as 
every instinct of our nature and every precept of 
political experience teaches us, that 
' ; 111 faros t.ho land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay," 

then where — in Ireland, in Italy, in Poland, or 
in Hungary — has any ruler prepared for a gener- 
ous and confiding people, disappointments, disas- 
ters, and calamities, equal to those which the 
Government of the United States holds now sus- 
pended over so large a portion of the continent 
of North America? 



Citizens of the United States, in the spirit of j even necessarily examined. I know of only one 
this policy, subverted the free Republic of Nic- policy which it has adopted or avowed, namely: 
aragua and opened it to slavery and the African the saving of the Territories of the United States, 
slave trade, and held it in that condition, waiting if possible, by constitutional and lawful means, 
annexation to the United States, until its sover- from being homes for slavery and polygamy. 
eignty was restored by a combination of sister i Who, that considers where this nation exists, ot 
Republics exposed to the same danger, and appre- what races it is composed, in what age of the 
hensive of similar subversion. Other citizens re- world it acts its part on the public stage, and 
opened the foreign slave trade in violation of our I what are its predominant institutions, custom?, 
laws and treaties ; and, after a suspension of that habits, and sentiments, doubts that the Repubh- 
shamelul traffic for ii fry years, savage Africans can party can and will, if unwaveringly faithful 
have been once more landed on our shores and , to that policy, and just and loyal in all beside, 
distributed, unreclaimed and with impunity, carry it into triumphal success? To doubt is 
among our plantations. J to be uncertain whether civilization can improve 

For°this policy, so far as the Government has or Christianity save mankind. 
sanctioned it, the Democratic party avows itself I may perhaps infer, from the necessity of the 
responsible Everywhere complaint against it is case, that it will, in all courts and places, stand 
denounced, and its opponents proscribed. When : by the freedom of speech and of the press, and 
Kansas was writhing under the wounds of incip- j the constitutional rights of freemen everywhere; 
ient, servile war, because of her resistance, the , that it will favor the speedy improvement ot the 
Democratic press deridinglv said, " let her bleed." public domain by homestead laws, and will en- 
Official integrity has been cause for rebuke and : courage mining, manufacture, and internal com- 
punishmenCwhen it resisted frauds designed to merce, with needful connections between the 
promote the extension of slavery. Throughout Atlantic and Pacific States— for all these are lm- 
the whole Republic, there is not one known dis- portant interests of freedom. For all the rest, 
senter from that policy remaining in place, if the national emergencies, not individual mtiu- 
wiihin reach of the Executive arm. Nor over i ences, must determine, as society goes on, the 
the face of the whole world is there to be found \ policy and character of the Republican party, 
one representative of our country who is not an ! Already bearing its part in legislation and in 
anolo-nst of the extension of slaverv. treaties, it feels the necessity ot being praetfral 

'it is in America that these things have hap- ' in its care of the national health and hie, while 
pened. In the nineteenth century, the era of the it leaves metaphysical speculation to those whose 
world's greatest progress, and while ill nations duty it is to cultivate the ennobling science of 
but ourselves have been either abridging or al- ! political philosophy. 

together suppressing commerce in men; at the But in the midst of these subjects, or, rather, 
very moment when the Russian serf is emanci- i before fully reaching them, the Republican party 
Dated, and the Georgian captive, the Nubian ' encounters, unexpectedly, a new and potential 
prisoner, and the Abyssinian savage, are lifted issue— one prior and therefore paramount to all 
up to freedom by the successor of Mohammed, others, one of national life and death. Just as 
The world, prepossessed in our behalf by our if so much had not been already conceded ; nay, 
early devotion to the rights of human nature, as just as if nothing at all had ever been conceded, 
no nation ever before engaged its respect and to the interest of capital invested in men, we 
sympathies, asks, in wonder and amazement, hear menaces of disunion, louder, more distinct, 
what all this demoralization means ? It has an ; more emphatic than ever, with the condition an- 
excuse better than the world can imagine, better ; nexf d, that they shall be executed the moment 
than we are generally conscious of ourselves, a that a Republican Administration, though consti- 
vinuous excuse. We have loved not freedom so tutionaily elected, shall assume the Government, 
much less, but the Union of our country so much I do not certainly know that the people are 
more. We have been made to believe, from time prepared to call such an Administration to power, 
to time, that, in a crisis, both of these precious I know only, that through a succession of fiood3 
institutions could not be saved together, and which never greatly excite, and ebbs which never 
therefore we have, from time to time, surrender- entirely discourage me, the volume of Repubhc- 
ed safeguards of freedom to propitiate the loyalty : anism rises continually higher and higher. They 
of capital, and stay its hands from doing violence are probably wise, whose apprehensions admonish 
to the Union. The'true state of the case, however, them that it is already strong enough tor effect. 
ought not to be a mvstery to ourselves. Prescience, i Hitherto the Republican party has been con- 
indeed, is not given to statesmen; but weare with- tent with one self-interrogatory —how many 
out excuse when we fail to apprehend the logic of j votes can it cast? These threats enforce an- 
current events. Let parties, or the Government, other— has it determination enough to cast them? 
choose or do what they may, the peopleof the Uni- This latter question touches its spirit and pride, 
ted States do not prefer the wealth of the few to the j I am quite sure, however, that as it has hitherto 
liberty of the many, capital to labor, African slaves practiced self-denial in so many other forms, it 
to white freemen, in the national Territories and | will in this emergency lay aside all impatience 
in future States. That question has never been | of temper, together with all ambition, and will 
distinctly recognised or actad on by them. The j consider these extraordinary declamations sen- 
Republican party embodies the po'pular protest j ously and with a just moderation. It would be 
and reaction against a policy which has been j a waste of words to demonstrate that they are 
fastened upon the nation by surprise, and which J unconstitutional, and equally idle to show that 
its reason and conscience, concurring with the . the responsibility for disunion, attempted or ef- 
reason and conscience of mankind, condemn. fected, must rest not with those who in the ex- 

S The choice of tho nation is now between the ercise of constitutional authority maintain the 
Democratic party and the Republican party. Its Government, but with those who unconstitution- 
principles and policy are, therefore, justly and | ally engage in the mad work of subverting it. 



What are the excuses for these menaces? 
They resolve themselves into this, that the Re- 
publican parly in the North is hostile to the 
South. But it already is proved to be a major- 
ity in the North ; it is therefore practically the 
people of the North. Will it not still be the same 
North that has forborne with you so long, and 
conceded to you so much ? Can you justly as- 
sume that affection, which has been so comply- 
ing, can all at once change to hatred, intense 
and inexorable ? 

You say that the Republican party is a- sec- 
tional one. Is the Democratic party less sec- 
tional ? Is it easier for us to bear your sectional 
sway than for you to bear ours ? Is it unreason- 
able that foronce we should alternate? But is the 
Republican party sectional? Not unless the Dem- 
ocratic party is. The Republican party prevails 
in the House of Representatives sometimes, the 
Democratic party in the Senate always. Which 
of the two is the most proscriptive ? Come, come, 
come, if you will, into the free States, into the 
State of New York, anywhere from Lake Erie to 
Sag Harbor, among my neighbors in the Owasco 
valley, hold your conventions, nominate your 
candidates, address the people, submit to them, 
fully, earnestly, eloquently, all your complaints 
and grievances of Northern disloyalry, oppres- 
sion, perfidy; keep nothing back, speak just as 
freely and as loudly there as you do here; you 
will have hospitable welcomes and appreciating 
audiences, with ballot-boxes open for all the votes 
you can win. Are you less sectional than this? 
Extend to us the same privileges, and I will engage 
that you will very soon have in the South as 
many Republicans as we have Democrats in the 
North. [Applause,] There is, however, a better 
test of nationality than the accidental location 
of parties. Our policy of labor in the Territories 
was not sectional in the first forty years of the 
Republic. Its nature inheres. It will be national 
again, during the third forty years, and forever 
afterwards. It is not wise and beneficent for us 
alone, or injurious to you alone. Its effects are 
equal, and the same for us all. 

You accuse the Republican party of ulterior 



sailant of States. All of the States are parcels 
of my own country — the best of them not so wise 
and great as I am sure it will hereafter be ; the 
State least developed and perfected among them 
all is wiser and better than any foreign State I 
know. Is it, then, in any, and in which, of the 
States I have named that negro equality offends 
the white man's pride? Throughout the wide 
world, where is the State where clas3 and caste 
are so utterly extinguished as they are in each 
and every one of them? Let the European im- 
migrant, who avoids the African as if his skin 
exhaled contagion, answer. You find him al- 
ways in the State where labor is ever free. Did 
Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, when they 
implored j'ou to relinquish your system, and ac- 
cept the one we have adopted, propose to sink 
you down to the level of the African, or was it 
their desire to exalt all white men to a common 
political elevation? 

But we do not seek to force, or even to intrude, 
our system on you. We are excluded justly, 
wisely, and contentedly, from all political power 
and responsibility in your capital States? You 
are sovereign on the subject of slavery wkhin 
your own borders, as we are on the same subject 
within our borders. It is well and wisely so ar- 
ranged. Use your authority to maintain what 
system you please. We are not distrustful of 
the result. We have wisely, as we think, exer- 
cised ours to protect and perfect the manhood of 
the members of the State. The whole sover- 
eignty upon domestic concerns within the Union 
is divided between us by unmistakable bounda- 
ries. You have your fifteen distinct parts ; we 
eighteen parts, equally distinct. Each must be 
maintained in order that the whole may be pre- 
served. If ours shall be assailed, within Gr 
without, by any enemy, or for any cause, and 
we shall have need, we shall expert you to de- 
fend it. If yours shall be so assailed, in the 
emergency, no matter what the cause or the 
pretext., or who the foe, we shall defend your 
sovereignty as the equivalent of our own. We 
cannot, indeed, accept your system of capital or 
its ethics. That would be to surrender and 



and secret designs. How can a party that ! subvert our own, which we esteem to be better. 



counts its votes in this land of free speech and 
free press by the hundreds of thousands, have 
any secret designs? Who is the conjurer, and 
where are the hidden springs by which he can 
control its uncongregated and widely-dispersed 
masses, and direct them to objects unseen and 
purposes unavowed ? But what are these hidden 
purposes? You name only one. That one is 
to introduce negro equality among you. Sup- 
pose we had the power to change your social 
system: what warrant have you for supposing 
that we should carry negro equality among you? 
We know, and we will show you, if you will 
only give heed, that what our system of labor 
works out, wherever it works out anything, is 
the equality of white men. The laborer in the 
free States, no matter how humble his occupa- 
tion, is a white man, and he is politically the 
equal of his employer. Eighteen of our thirty- 
three States are free-labor States. There they 
are : Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illi- 
nois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Cali- 
fornia, and Oregon. I do not array them in 
contrast with the capital States. I am no as- 



Besides, if we could, what need for any division 
into State3 at all? You are equally at liberty 
to reject our system and its ethics, and to main- 
tain the superiority of your own by all the forces 
of persuasion and argument. We must, indeed, 
mutually discuss both systems. All the world 
discusses all systems. Especially must we dis- 
cuss them, since we have to decide as a nation 
which of the two we ought to engraft on the 
new and future States growing up iu the great 
public domain. Discussion, then, being una- 
voidable, what could be more wise than to con- 
duct it with mutual toleration and in a fraternal 
spirit ? 

You complain that Republicans discourse too 
boldly and directly, when they express with con- 
fidence their belief that the system of labor will, 
in the end, be universally accepted by the capital 
States, acting for themselves, and in conformity 
with their own Constitutions, while they sanc- 
tion too unreservedly books designed to advo- 
cate emancipation. But surely you can hardly 
expect the Federal Government or the political 
parties of the nation to maintain a censorship of 
the press or of debate. The theory of our sys- 
tem is, that error of opinion may in all cases 



let. Northward of the , • t , this 

there an opgraent. to. I iu $ mia b i: , v 

and there a robber or a M di * J tre( 



safely be tolerated where reason is left free to 
combat it. Will it be claimed that more of mod- 
eration and tenderness in debate are exhibited 
on vour side of the great argument than on our 
own ? We all learned our polemics, as well as 
; our principles, from a common master. We are 
l sure that we do not, on our side, exceed his les- 
sons and example. Thomas Jefferson addressed 
Dr. Price, an Englishman, concerning his treatise 
on emancipation in America, in this fashion : 
' ; Southward of the Chesapeake, your book will find but 
i tiring with it iu sentiment ontl 
y. Ftoei the mouth to the bead ofthoChe 
the bulk ofthe people will approve it in theory, and it will 
Ami ;l reS j . rity ready to adopt it in practice ; a 

mnority which, for weight and worth of character, pre- 
ponderates against the greater number who have not the 
courage to divest their families of a property which, how- 
cvcrTkccps their consciences unquiet. Northward of the 
Chesapc ik >, you may bad here and 
your u ictrine, as you may and here i 
murderer :b i no greater number. * * * This (Vir 
giniu) is the u si Stai i to which wc may turn our eyes for 
the interesting spectacle of justice in conflict with avarice 
and oppression— a conflict where the sacred side is gaining 
from the inJaxinto office of young men, 
t and%rowing Op. * * * Be not, then, discouraged. 
\fbni . itten will do a great deal of goo i : and 

could you still trouble yourself about our welfare, no man is 
more able to Help the laboring side." 

Von see, sir, that whether we go for or against 
slavery anywhere, we must follow Southern 
guides. You may change your pilots with the 
wind3 or the currents ; but we, whose nativity, 
reckoned under the North Star, has rendered us 
somewhat superstitious, must be excused for constancy in 
i ui 'anceoL those who framed the national ship, 

an i gave us (lio chart for its noble voyage. 

A profound res lect and friendly regard for the Vice Presi- 
dent of the United Slates has induced me to weigh carefully 
the testimony be has given on the subject of the li 
against the d to the Eepnblican party, as de- 

rive l from the relations of ibe representatives of the two 
parti sal thiscapital. Ho says that he has seen here, in the 
representatives of the lower (Southern States, a most resolute 
and earnest spii it of resistance totheltepubiican p irty: that 
ho perccLvi s a e msible loss of that spirit of brotherhood and 
thatfeelii • ty, together with that love for a common 

c mntry, which are at last the surest, cement of the Union : 
s > that, iu the \ resent unhappy condition of affairs, he is al- 
1 1 exclaim, that we are dissolving week by 
I . month ; that the threads are gradually 
fretting themselves asunder ; and a r-tra a suppose 

that tli i ■ the United States was the Presi 

-,,,• ) h Stile Rep tblics. It is not for me to raise a doubt upon 
the correctness of this dark picture, so fir as the Southern 
groups upon the canvas aro concerned, but i must be in- 

:■'<'- pinionthatlcanpronounc telycon- 

ccrning the Northerner Republican representatives hero as 
any one. I know their public haunts-and thou- private ways. 
Wo are not a Uostilc Republic, or representatives of one. We 
confer t gether, b t only as the organs of every party do, 
aud must do, in a political system which obligi 3 us to act 
■ ms, while it requires us ahv.-rjiS to be pa- 
triots and statesmen. Differences of opinion, even on the 
subject of slavery, with us are political, not social or per- 
sonal differences." There is not one disunionisl or ti sioyalist 
among us all. Wo are altogether unconscious of any pro- 
cess of dissolution going onamongnsror around us. We have 
never been more patient, and never level the representa- 
tives of other sect ons more, than now. We bear the same 
tround os here, who, though in the 
very centre, wl sre th i bolt of disunion must fall first, and 
b 3 most fearful in its effects, seem never less disturbed than 
now. We bear the same testimony for all the districts and 
States we represent, 'lhe people of the North are not ene- 
mies, but friends and brethren of the South, faithful an 1 true 
as in th : days when Death has dealt his arrows promiscu- 
ously among them on common battle-fields of freedom. 

We will not s.iffer ourselves here to dwell on any evi- 
dences of a different temper in the South ; but we shall be 
content with expressing our belief that hostility that is not 
designedly provoked, and that cannot provoke retaliation, 
anomaly that must be traced to casual excitements, 
which cannot perpetuate, alienation. 

A canvass for a Presidential election, in somo respects 
more important, perhaps, than any since 1S00, has recently 
begun. The House of Representatives was to be organized 
by a majority, while no party could cast more than a plu- 
rality of votes. The gloom of the late tragedy in V 
rested on the Capitol from the day when ( ongress assem- 
bled. While t'ue two greut political panics were peacefully, 



lawfully, and constitutionally, though zealously, conducting 
the great national issue between free labor aud capital labor 
fortheTerrit . oper solution, through the I 

of the ballot, operating directly or indirei 
departments ofthe Government, a baud of I men, 

contemptuous equally of that great q par- 

tiestothe controversy, and impatient of the constitutional 
system wh < unties the citizens ofcvt ry Stat stopo 
action by suffrage in organized parties within their own bor- 
ders, inspired by an enthusiasm peculiar I I -.and. 
exasperated by grievances and wrongs that some of them 

fered by inroads of armed propaj 
in Kansas, unlawful as their own retaliation wa 
to subvert slavery iu Virginia by oon6piracy,ambnsh, inva- 
sion, and force. The method we hav i adopte 1,0 ipp 
to the reason and judgment of the pe ••■■-. \ b pronounced. 
by suffrage, -s the only one by which free GkK ! 
I . ■ i i anywhere, and thoonrj o ..-vised, 

which is in harmony with the spirit of the Christ an n 
While generous and charitable natures will prob 
that John Brown and bis associates act I though 

fata] -. tvictJons,yet all good oSt!3enswiU never- 

attempt to exi en) s a i unlawful pur- 
asion, urvoivjng servile war, was ailj 
a-, n, and criminal in just the extent 
that it affected the public pear.' and was destructive of hu- 
man happiness and human life. Jt is a painful reflection 
that, after so long an experience-of the I kisgoi 

four system as wo have enjoyed, wo have bad these new 
I illustrations in Kansas and Virginia of the existence among 
' us of a class of men so misguidedand so desperate as to seek 
i to enforce their peculiar principles by the sword, drawing 1 
after it a need for thefurthcr illustration by their punishment 
of that great moraUnvth, especially app'ucible in a Republic, 
that the v who take up the sword as a weapi u of controversy 
shall perish by the sw »rd. In (lie latter ca • •. the lamented 
- ,.1 so many citizens, slain from an ambush and by 
surprise— all the more lamentable because they were inno- 
cent victims of a frenzy kindled without their agency, in far 
distant tires — the deaths even of the offenders thorns lives. 
pitiable, although necessary and just, because they acted 
delirium, which blinded their judgments to the real 
nature of their criminal enterprise ; the alarm and conster- 
nation n it irally awakened throughout the country, exciting 
for the moment the fear that our whole system, with all its 
securities for life and liberty, was coming to pn.cnd— a ar 
none the more endurable because continually aggravated by 
new chimeras towhich the great leading event Sent an air oi 
probability; surely all these constituted a sum ol 
misery which ought to hare satisfied the most morbid appe- 
tite for social horrors. But,as in the case ofthe gunpow ler 
plot, and the Salem Witchcraft, and the New York o 
negr i plot, so now ; thooriginal actorswere swiftly followed 
by another and kindred class, who sought to : 

wi len the public distress by attempting to direct the Indig- 
nation which it bad excited against parties guiltless equally 
of ci »mpli ;ity and of sympathy with the offenders. 

Posterity V.- cl all the recent cases where political 

:■■• -■■•: - f" -v for public disasters must fall; and posterity 
will give little heed to oar interested instructions. It wasuot 
untilthei LoomyreignofDoihitianhadon irtyand 

virtueha 1 fo indassured refuge under tho sway of the milder 
Nerva,th itthe b s* rian arosewhosa narrative of that period 
of tyranny and terror has been accepted by mankind. 

The Republican party being thus vindicated against tho 
charge of hostility to the South* which 1 xed in 

excuse for the menaces of unconstitutional res. stance in tho 
event of its success, 3 feel weil assured that it will sustain 
. : them in the Spirit ofthe defender ol the Eng- 
lish Commonwealth. 

i; Surely, they that shall boast as we do to be a free na- 
' tion,and having tho power, shall .not also hive 



to remove, constitutionally, every Governor, whether he 
bo tho supreme or subordinate, may pleas i theirfancywitu 

• a ridiculous and painted freedom, fit to cozen babies, b it 

' are, indeed, under tyranny and s -'■ aiding that 

' power, which is the root and source efall liberty . ti p dispose 
' of and economize in tho lead which G a them, 

' as members of family in their own home an 1 tree iiibent- 
' ance. Without which natural and essential power of a free 
' nation, though bearing high their heals, they can, in dues 

• esteem, be thought nohetter than slaves and vassals born 
' in the tenure aud occupation of another inheriting lord, 
' whose government, though not illegal or intolerable, hangs 
1 on them as a lordly scourge, not jis a free government." 

The Republican party know*, as the whole couutryw.il 
ultimately coma to understand, that the ctsof 

il life must perish, if that life itself sba'l be lost,anq 
therefor il wi ' ai cepttho issue tendered. It will take up 
the word Union, which others are so willing to rem 
and., combining it with that other glorious thought, Lib 
winch has been its inspiration so lone, it Will move firmly 
I, with the motto inscribed on its banner, " Uxio.v 
and LmKBTY, come what may, in victory as in defeat, in 
power as out of power, now and forever." 

If the Republican part v maintain the Union, who and what 
party is to assail it? Oiily the Democratic party, for there 



8 



is no other. Will the Democratic party take up the at- 
taint? The i i isunion are ma le,thot aotili its 

>, yet in its behalf. It mast avow or disavow them. 

is, 1 darming. The 

,. ,i.i be to continue 
the rul ... am noritj , b - 

ror. It ccrtaiiily.<ought t eel no i this to secure 

the success of the Republican party. If, indeed, thi I 

i me when the Democratic party mi si rule by terror, 
instead of ruling through conceded public canij I mce, then it 
is quite certain that it cannot bo dismissed from power too 
Ruling on that odious principle, it could not long save 
i ither the Constitution or public Uborty. But i' shall not be- 
lieve the Di dioci aUc party will consent to stand ... this posi- 
tion, though ii docs, through the action of its representatives', 

; i i cover and sustain those who threaten disunion. I 
know the Democracy of the North. I know them now in 
their waning strength. I do not know a possible disun 
among them all. J believe they vruM be as iaithful to the t nion 
now as they were in Che bygone days when their rank's wore 
full, and tb ir challenge to the combat was always tho war- 

. victory. But, if it shall prove otherwise, then the 
world will all the sooner know that every party in this coun- 
try must stand on Union groun 1 ; that th An rican people 
will s istain no party that is not i apuble of making a sacri- 
fice of its ambition on the altar of the country ; that, all 
a party may have never so much of prestige, and never-! tich 
traditional merit, yet, if it be lacking in the one virtue ol 
loyalty to the Union, all its advantages will be unavi 
and then, obnoxious as, through long-cherished and obsti- 
nate prejudices, the Republican parly isin tho capital St iti .-. 
yet even there it will advance like an army with banners, 

ol the whole people, and il a 
with the national confidence and support, when it shall" be 

I the only party that defends and maintains the integrity 
or the Union. ^ 

Those who seek to awaken the terrors of disunion seem to 
me to have too hastily considered the conditions under which 

they are to make their attempt. Who be 

lican Administration and Congress could practice tyranny 
Under a Constitution which interposes so many checks as 
ours? Yet that tyranny must not one, I, bill 

must be intolerable, and there must be no remaining hope 
for constitutional relief, bclbre forcible res. stance can find 
ground to stand on auj where; 

The people of the United States, acting in conformity with 
I ! - I onstitution, are the supreme tribunal to try and deter- 
mine all political issues. '1 hey are' as competent to decide i he 
ei oft i-day as they have been heretofore to di cide to i 
ol i ther days. Tb y can reconsider hereafter ami re- 

i, ,i need be, thejudgment they shall pi on i nci I 
they have more than once reconsiden I and reversed 
their judgments in former tunes. It needs no revolution to 
correct any error, or prevent any danger, under any cir- 
cumstances. 

Nor is any new or special cause for revolution likely to 
occur under a Republican Administration. We are engaged 
in no new transaction, not even iu a new dispute. Our 
fathers undertook a great work for themselves, for us, and 
for our successors— to erect a free and V ■ .;. ral empire, 
whose arches shall span tho North American continent, and 
reflect the rays of the sun throughout his wii i.m is/a^-iVom 
the one to the other of the great oceans. They erected thir- 
teen ol ,i columns all at once, lie-.-, -are standing now,the 
admiration of mankind. Their successors added twenty 
more ; even we who are here have shaped and elevated 
three of that twenty, and all these are as firm and steadfast 
as the first thirteen : and more will yet be necessary when 
we shall have rested from our labors. Some among us pre- 
>" r for thes i ■•■: trims a composite material: others, the pure 
White marble, our fathers and our predect ssors differed in 

urn way, and on the sane.: poiut. What execrations 
we not ail unite hi pronouncing on at 
who heretofore, from mere disappointment and disgust at 
being overruled in his choice of materials for any new col- 
umn then to 1"' quarried, should have laid violent hands on 
the imperfect structure, and brought it down to the earth, 
there to remain a wreck, instead of a citadel of a world's 
best hopes 1 
I remain now in the opinion I have uniformly expressed 

m I elsewhere, that these hasty threats of disunion 

i al iral that they will find no hand to execute them. 
We are of one race, language, liberty, and faith ; engaged, 
indeed, in varied industry, but even that industry,so diver- 
s lied, brings us into more intimate relations with each 
cither than any other prop!,', however homogeneous, and 
though living under a consolidated Government, ever main- 

I. We languish throughout, if one joint of our Federal 
frame is smitten ; while it is certain that a part dissevered 
must perish. You may refine as you please about the 
structure of the Government, and say that it is a compact, 
and that a breach, by one of the States or by Congress, of 
one article, absolves all the members from allegiance, 
aud that the States may separate when they have, or fancy 
they have, cause for war. But once try to subvert it, and 
you will find that it is a Government of the whole people — 
as individuals, as well as a compact of States ; that every 
individual member of the body politic is conscious of his in- 



terest and power in it. and knows that he v, ill b 
powerless, hopeless, when jt shall have gone down. Ma 
kindJiave ,'ht, a natural instinct, and a oritur, 

capacitjrfor self-gdveriimeiit ; and when, a 
sufficiently ripened by culture, they will and in 
sail go\ ei i.m -lit. and ia- other. The framei 
tution, with a wisdom that surpassed all previous 
j standing among men, adapted it to thes 
'of inn;, ,ui nature. He strangely, blindly misundci 
j the anatomy of the great system, whothfnks 
; bonds, oi' even it- stt ongesl ifgam mts, are the written < in- 
; pact or even the multiplied and thoroughly ramified mads 
i an 1 thoroughfares oi trad,, commerce, and social inter- 

i b • are strong jnde id, but its cl 

! incuts of i hcsioi —those which reudei il | 

indivisible— are t!ie millions of fibres of millions of con- 

t] py hum an hearts, binding by their affections^ 

their ambitions, i nd their best, hopes, equally the high and 

the low, the rich and the poor, the wise and the 

learned and 1 the bad, 

to a Government, the first, the last, and the only such one 
that hasjever existed, which takes equal I I alw 

j then- wants, their wishes, and their opinion- ; an La] 

■ ■ m all, individually, once in a year, or iu two yi ti . r 
at least in four years, for their expressed consent 
u'ewal, without which it musl cease. N'o ; g , whe 

W.il.a.ul to what class you may, with commissi! 

j your fatal service in one hand, and your b ■ : y 

the leer ir<- I or t.i ■ tho tsan I p i ccs of silvej , i the i ther, a 
thousand resistors will rise up for every rcci ou can i ■- 
gage. On the banks equally of the S>. Lawj 
Rio Grande, ou the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, on the 
shores of t 1 . ■ '■■ ' ■ ico aud hi the ■ 

.Mountains, among the fishermen on the banks of New- 
foundland, the weavers and spinners of Ma 
stevedores of New York, the miners of Pei i 
Peak, and California, the wheat-grower? ' hid tua, tho cot- 
ton and the sugai planters on the U 
voluntary citizens from every other land not less than the 

native I n, the I hristian and the Jew, among the Indians 

on the prairies, tho contumacious Mormons inDe 
Aft icans free, the Africans in bondage, the inin ttes cf hos- 
pitals and almshouses, and even the criminals in the peni- 
tentiaries, rehearse the story ofyour wrong ■ and their i trn 
never so eloquently and never so m >urnl 
to them to rise. They will ask you, •• Is thisull?" "Are 
you more just than Washington, wiser than Hamilton, moro 

| humane than Jefferson? " " What new form oi government 
or of union have you the power to establish, or i von the 
cunning to devise, that will be more jost, m ire sal i, m ire 
iron, urea- gentle, more beneficent, or moro glorious than 
this?'! And by these simple interrogatories you will bo 
id and confounded. 
Mr. President, wo arc perpetually forget tl 
and complex, yel obvious and natural, mechanism 

Constitution ; and because we do fi I it, we arc i mtin- 

ually wondering how a is that a Conl sderacy of thirty and 
more States, covering regioni so vast, and regulating inter- 
ests so various of so many millions oi m and 
conditioned so diversely, works right on. We are contin- 
ually looking to see a s top, and stand still, or kill suddenly 
into pieces. But, iu truth, it will not stop ; it cannot stop ; 
it was made not to Stop, but lo keep ill motion — in net on 
always, and without force. For my own pail, as this won- 
dorful machine, when it had newly come from the hancfc i f 
its almost divine inventors, was the admiration ofmyi 
years, ait 'no ugh it was then Put imperfectly '. .own abroad, 
so now, when it tonus the central figure m tie' economy of 

tho world's civilization, and the host sympathies ol m cind 

favor its continuance, I expect tint it will stand an 1 work 
right on until men shall fear its failure no moro than we a iw 
apprehend that the sun will cease to hold Ins eternal place 

iu ilia heavens. 

Nevertheless. I do not expect to see this purely popular, 
though majestic, system always working on unattended by 
the presence and exhibition of human temper and human 
passions. That would be to expect to enjoy rewards, bene- 
tits, .and blessings, without, labor, care, aud watchfulness — 
an expectation contrary to Divine appointment. These ar-e 
the discipline of the American citizen, and he must imiro 
himself to it. When, as now, a great, policy, fastened upon 
the country through its doubts and fears, confirmed by its 
habits, and strengthened by personal interests aud ambi- 
tions, is to be relaxed and changed, in order that the nation 
may have its just are! natural and free developments, then, 
indeed, all the wines of controversy are let loose upon us 
from ail points of the political compass- — we s >c objects and 
men only through hazes, mists, and doubtful and I and 
lights. The earth seems to be heaving under our feet, and 
the pillars of the noble fabric that protects us to bo tn ni- 
, bllng before our eyes. But the appointed end of all this agi- 
tation comes at, last, and always seasonably : the tumults of 
the people subside ; the country becomes cairn once more ; 
and then we find that only our senses have been disturoed, 
and that they have betrayed us. The earth is firm as always 
before, and the wonderful structure, for whose safety we 
have feared so anxiously, now more firmly lixed than ever, 
still stands unmoved, enduring, and immovable 















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